Jun 24, 2002 4 min read

Members of the Pennsylvania Legislature, facing a July 1 deadline and a $1.2 billion deficit, will be debating a new budget this week. Listen carefully for the next few days to the rhetoric and self-serving bombast coming from our esteemed representatives in Harrisburg — Republicans and Democrats.

School board members across the commonwealth are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the budget debate. The governor has proposed only a one percent increase in the money going to schools.

If you believe the budget debate has no direct impact on your personal checking account, you are wrong.

Brace yourself. School property taxes are headed straight up.

If your school district doesn’t increase taxes this year, the odds are high that you will get hit with a bigger tax bill the following year.

In other words, no tax increase for this upcoming school year will only delay for a few months an inevitable tax hike.

As the Democrats and Republicans exchange insults and frontal attacks on one another this week, don’t be misled into believing they truly have the interests and welfare of the taxpayers as high priorities. There’s indisputable evidence to show this is not the case.

As an example, ask your local representative this question: Why do we need to give $44 million (another big raise is included in the new budget) to the political leaders to spend as they wish?

The Republican and Democrat political leaders in the House receive $11 million each for “leadership accounts.” That $22 million is added to another multimillion-dollar fund for political caucus activities for both parties. The Senate has a similar sweetheart deal. The cost is astronomical.

Here’s a prediction: You will not hear one word during the debate this week, not one whisper, one comment about these lavish and wasteful multimillion-dollar leadership and political caucus funds. No one will suggest that they be reduced or eliminated. No one will question the need for such spending.

If the commonwealth is in such desperate financial condition, if area school boards are dipping into their emergency reserve funds to keep the kids in classrooms, why doesn’t someone, anyone, question the use of these leadership/caucus funds?

The answer is simple. Both Republicans and Democrats are riding this gravy train, and no one wants it stopped, or even slowed down. Any ethical, independent representative or senator who questions such spending faces immediate retaliation from the political leaders.

Added to this shameful fraud upon the taxpayers by our elected leaders is the fact that they voted last fall to increase their own personal pensions by 50 percent. School districts, through you the taxpayer, must make contributions to this pension fund for retired state employees.

Through legislative action, the school boards’ required pension contribution was reduced for the upcoming year, but it only postpones for a few months a financial price which will be hitting all of the school districts in the following years.

Future school tax increases are guaranteed. They are coming. Don’t blame your school board members. Blame your legislators.

How much nerve does it take for a group of individuals to boost their own pension checks (for part-time jobs with leased cars) while at the same time reading programs for kids are being eliminated in classrooms?

The amazing part of this entire scenario is that the legislators slip out from under the roof when it falls every time. It’s never their fault. They don’t even bring up for discussion cutbacks in the millions and millions of dollars they receive for their personal and partisan political programs.

Watch the budget debates in Harrisburg. I guarantee you won’t find one comment, or even a mention, which proposes cutbacks in the legislative leadership or caucus accounts. If you’re looking for a classic example of statesmanship versus self-serving, greedy politician, this is it.

Mike Ellis is the editor of the Herald-Standard. E-mail: mellis@heraldstandard.com.